Geratomran Reconquest
The Geratomran Reconquest was but one of a series of brushfire wars the Imperium of Man fought in the wake of the Macharian Crusade. With the great crusade of Lord Commander Solar Macharius drawing in the military resources of virtually all the Segmentum Pacificus and half the Segmentum Tempestus, several worlds turned from the Emperor's light. One was the Industrial World of Geratomro, which entered a state of open rebellion after being unable to meet the required Imperial Tithe fixed by the Adeptus Administratum. Faced with the resistance of Geratomro's remaining Planetary Defence Forces, and with several other worlds on the brink of open revolt, the Segmentum authorities decided that a show of force was necessary. The options of Exterminatus ''and orbital bombardment were considered and then dismissed, for Geratomro was a promising Industrial World whose resources might one day again benefit the Imperium. As isolating the Gerat System through the use of a naval blockade would take too long to bring the rebels to their knees, it was decided that a planetary assault using ground forces was the only realistic option. Several preexisting Battlegroups of the Astra Militarum were redirected to Geratomro and after their initial successes they were forced to face not only Heretic Astartes of the traitorous Emperor's Children Legion, but also elements of an unidentified Traitor Titan Legion. The carefully laid plans to bring Geratomro back into the Imperial fold with as little planetary damage as possible had to be dismissed once the Imperial forces needed to ensure that the servants of Chaos could not unleash their most terrible allies into realspace -- the daemonic legions of the Chaos Gods. Thanks to the actions of a small contingent of Black Templars Space Marines of the Michaelus Crusade and the heroic contribution of Honoured Lieutenant Colaron Artem Lo Bannick of the 7th Paragonian Super Heavy Company, the daemonic incursion was prevented and Geratomro was not transformed into a new Daemon World in service to the Ruinous Powers. History Prelude When Lord Commander Solar Macharius secured the High Lords of Terra's support to launch the Macharian Crusade in the early 41st Millennium, the Lord Solar turned to the Adeptus Administratum, and more specifically the Departmento Munitorum, to assemble the countless regiments of Astra Militarum that would be needed to reconquer the Halo Zone in the name of the Emperor. All across the Segmentum Pacificus and the Segmentum Tempestus, Departmento Munitorum Assessor Teams began to exact the Imperial Tithe, claiming men and materiel for the new Imperial Crusade. However, due to the setbacks later encountered by the Lord Solar's armies, the tithes expected from the worlds supplyign the Crusade steadily increased. The Devil's Choice In 394.M41, a new Munitorum delegation under the authority of both Senior Assessor Borowik and Tithemaster Querol was dispatched to Geratomro. The world's ruler, Planetary Governatrice Missrine Huratal I, was reluctant to welcome the envoys for it was the ninth time in only seven Terran years that the Departmento Munitorum had demanded that Geratomro provide more troops for the Macharian Crusade. While Geratomro had readily complied with all the prior requests, this time the planetary government of Geratomro intended to refuse the Imperial envoys: the previous tithes had bled Geratomro dry of manpower. Women and children now worked in the fields and in Geratomro's manufactoria. Most of the world's men had been drafted into the Planetary Defence Forces, a necessary measure since some of the moons of Gerat V had already been attacked by xenos raiders. Any further loss of manpower would render Geratomro unable to meet the requirements of the Exacta, the Imperial Tithe of economic resources gathered by another division of the Adeptus Administratum. Vainly, Missrine Huratal I pleaded for the Administratum envoys to turn back and leave Geratomro in peace. She argued that if they were to leave, the Macharian Crusade would merely be short 50,000 troops while Geratomro would still be able to fulfill the requirements of its tithe to the Departmento Exacta. Even the xenos -- while posing a threat -- could be held at bay with the forces the governor had at her disposal. In short, the human cost of an invasion of Geratomro to enforce compliance would doubtlessly be far higher than the number of troops the Administratum wanted to raise from the world. This message was continuously relayed to the approaching Tithe Fleet, first through astropathic message and once they had reached Geratomro's orbit, through hololitic communication, but still Senior Assessor Borowik and Tithemaster Querol could not be swayed. A confrontation was inevitable. The Envoys of Terra As soon as the Tithe Fleet arrived in low orbit around Geratomro, the Administratum delegation pushed for a meeting with the Planetary Governatrice. A delegation numbering several hundred individuals was assembled and brought planetside to the planetary capital of Magor's Seat. Almost immediately, Senior Assessor Borowik demanded to be received by Missrine Huratal I, a meeting she delayed for several solar hours. This show of resistance by the Planetary Governatrice only served to further unnerve the senior Administratum envoys. Finally, the Governatrice's personal armsmen, the Yellow Guard, opened the towering doors to the great Hall of Magor, Missrine Huratal's throne room. A wave of incense preceded the Administratum delegation as it proceeded towards the throne accompanied by the augmented, droning chants of several hundred Priests of the Adeptus Ministorum. To the sound of hymns to the Emperor's glory and magnificence, the vast retinue advanced behind its master, Senior Assessor Borowik. The senior Adept of the Administratum was a tall, slender man, his almost corpse-like thinness revealing that he had been born on a low gravity world. On Geratomro where the gravity was at best average, the Senior Assessor had to rely on a piston-assisted, medical exo-skeleton called an Ambulator Frame to move at all, a stark contrast to the mountains of flesh and fat that constituted the gathered Geratomran nobility. But despite his physical frailty, the Senior Assessor advanced without fear along the great Hall of Magor, betraying a confidence the Planetary Governatrice mistook for the arrogance of a conquering general. having expected a difficult audience, Borowisk's retinue fielded a great number of armed guards, anonymous men in the black uniforms of the Administratum's own battalions rather than soldiers of any particular regiment of the Astra Militarum. But the majority of the advancing column went unarmed: ecclesiastical Priests, robed Adepts bearing Data-Slates, Lexmechanics detailing the events on great strips of parchment, Servo-Skulls measuring everything from the hall's dimensions to the circumference of the ornate hats the noblemen wore and other Servitors whose back-mounted generators filled the air with a continuous hum once the hymns had stopped. "Lady Governatrice, your tithe is overdue! You flout the primary and only rule of planetary governership. Release the military assets owed or pay the consequences. This is your only warning," Borowisk said with a powerful voice. It was a requirement of his position, a show of strength and determination that the Departmento Munitorum would not and could not allow one world to go unpunished for withholding the Emperor's Harvest. Quite incongruously, Missrine Huratal I did not answer the Senior Assessor but began to tell the gathered assembly a fairy tale well-known on her world -- the story of the Devil-in-the-Bush. It was a cautionary story intended to teach Imperial citizens never to accept a gift from the baleful denizens of the Warp. The tale concerned the notion of "a devil's choice," a choice where both options invariably led to the same tragic outcome, be it death, ruin or devastation. It was a deveil's choice that the Administratum was forcing upon Geratomro: refuse the Departmento Munitorum and be punished or refuse the Departmento Exacta and be punished nonetheless. Faced with such an impossible choice, Missrine Huratal I decided on an alternative: refuse both demands and hope that the Imperium of Mankind currently lacked the strength of arms to mete out the promised retribution. In response, at Borowisk's signal, the Administratum guards leveled their Lasguns at the Planetary Governatrice and opened fire. But Missrine Huratal I barely flinched. Her personal Conversion Field flickered brightly, absorbing the first shots before her Yellow Guard -- who had taken up perfect firing positions during her story-telling -- cut the emissaries down in volleys of disciplined lasfire. A few noblemen and noblewomen died in the cross-fire, but the Administratum delegation was slaughtered to the last Adept. Geratomro was now in rebellion against the Imperium. Within a single solar hour of the insurrection's start, Geratomro's main Adeptus Arbites precinct had been leveled by concentrated artillery fire while the Tithe Fleet was attacked by Geratomro's Defence Lasers. With their Void Shields lowered, the Departmento Munitorum's fleet suffered heavy losses but remained at station to land the troops of General Jonathan Hern. Despite fierce fighting, the mostly Cadian troops were unable to capture the spaceport of Matua Superior and were forced to retreat. Thus began the campaign remembered as the Geratomran Reconquest. Imperial Response With the initial recovery force having suffered heavily under the Traitors' assault, it was clear that Geratomro's resistance needed to be broken before it sparked a new wave of revolts across the Agritha Sub-sector -- and possibly beyond. In truth, the Imperium generally had only four options to deal with rebellious worlds: an ''Exterminatus action, orbital bombardment, planetary isolation or a planetary assault. The first two options were quickly dismissed, for the Imperium was loathe to sacrifice an inhabitable planet without good reason. Likewise, as Geratomro's orbital defences were still operational it was too risky to unleash the warships of the Imperial Navy for an orbital bombardment. While blockading and isolating Geratomro and leaving it over to neglect was a viable option, the several solar decades or even Terran centuries required for this kind of venture to succeed would have an immediate and deleterious affect on the Macharian Crusade's supply lines. In order to reestablish Imperial Law and present an example to other worlds considering rebellion, a great show of strength was required, a display of power which would let every potentially seditious Imperial Governor in the sub-sector know what happened to those who defied the will of the Lords of Terra. To show the rebellious world the true strength of the Imperium's armed forces, much consideration was given to the composition of the final battlegroup, with great care taken to ensure that every major Adepta of the Imperium was represented. Fortunately for the senior Adepts of the Departmento Munitorum, such forces were already near-by. Having fought alongside Battlegroup Kalidar in the Kalidar War, a small Crusade of Black Templars Space Marines was still available and was more than willing to lend their strength to the Geratomran Reconquest. Likewise, the Adeptus Mechanicus had previously deployed a single maniple of Battle Titans from the Legio Crucis to the sub-sector capital of Agritha to ward it from the attention of the Aeldari. It was seconded to the Geratomran Reconquest after some minor negotiations In the end, no less than three full-fledged battlegroups of the Astra Militarum were rerouted to Geratomro, a mighty show of force intended to deny the rumours of the Imperium's weakness. Forcing a Landing Hostilities began on 082.398.M41 when the gathered Imperial forces moved to capture the city of Matua Superior, a landing zone chosen for the presence of its spaceport. Since the Imperium wished to capture both the city and spaceport intact, the attacking Astra Militarum regiments were under strict orders to limit collateral damage and unnecessary destruction to the surrounding infrastructure. Orbital landings are one of the most dangerous operations undertaken by Imperial forces and even conservative estimates would place the losses suffered during the transfer from orbit to surface at 20%, a testimony to the potency of Matua Superior's air-defence network. The brunt of the assault would be carried out by the men of the 477th Paragonian Foot which would be supported by all Super Heavy Tank Companies available to this campaign: a sound tactical choice as well as a show of power. The disembarking troops would do so in torrential rain, Geratomro's climate wracked by the stress put on it by the supporting Lance-strikes of the Imperial Navy - for while Matua Superior was to be captured as intact as it could be, the city would not escape unscathed. While quite humble in size, the months of respite between the two Imperial landings had given the defenders time to considerably fortify the city's surroundings which were now occupied by a well-dug trench system and a cordon of defensive bastions. With the rain turning the ground into a literal quagmire, the assaulting Imperials readied themselves for some gruesome fighting. Under the general oversight of Captain-General Iskhandrian of Atraxia, Matua Superior was assailed from three directions at once. The northern landings fields were given over to the Atraxian regiments with mission to capture and hold the port facilities before the enemy could sabotage them. From the west, the remains of the initial reclamation force would venture further into the city, linking up with those elements left behind on Geratomro and which had until now been laying siege to Matua Superior. The main assault would however come from the south and was given to the united Paragonian Regiments of Battlegroup Genthus and Kalidar. Their mission was to capture the southern landing fields before pressing into the city. The capture of Matua Superior Ferried planetside by heavy-duty landers of the Imperial Navy, both the Seventh and the Eight Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Companies were deployed to support the 477th advance. due to a malfunction of one of the landing claws, the Seventh command engine, the Hellhammer Ostrakhan's Rebirth remained locked in its transport position, forcing the three remaining Super Heavy Tanks to advance without their commanding officer. Under the guidance of Honoured Lieutenant Corlaron Artem Lo Bannick in the Baneblade Cortein's Honour, the Seventh Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Company spear-headed the assault on the city. Their task was to eliminate Matua Superior's most potent defences, a fortified battery of Macrocannons with direct lines of sight on the southern landing fields. Located in big, blunt fortified towers of Ferrocrete, these towers posed a serious threat to the entire landing if not taken out soon. Fortunately, the enemy was slow to turn their big guns towards them, a fact which indicated either a lack of training by the Planetary Defence Militia or a serious lack of men. With the first shells landing on the southern landing fields, the crew of the transport still holding Ostrakhan's Rebirth choose to take off despite Honoured Captain Hannick's vehement protests he and his tank would not be simply ferried off-world again. Just as they took off, the lander was hit by a glancing shot by the Macrocannons, crashing back to earth and caught fire. Ostrakhan's Rebirth, feared lost, shot its way out through the burning debris and emerged more or less unscathed into the rain. In retaliation, the Comapany's sole Shadowsword, Lux Imperator, fired its mighty Volcano Cannon at the Marcrocannon-battery, neatly decapitating one of the towers and silencing its gun. As Ostrakhan's Rebirth churned through the mud, intend on rejoining the leading elaments of its Company, the general order to attack the city was given. The more advanced Baneblades, Cortein's Honour and Artemen Ultrus were now being overtaken by the swifter Leman Russ Battle Tanks of the Paragonian 42nd Armoured Regiment and those of the 322nd Armoured Veterans. Lux Imperator tried to fire again, but the capricious weapon refused to comply, forcing both Baneblades to the fore in order to deal with the remaining Macrocannons. While it took them several shots to zero in, soon the Baneblades' Mega Battle Cannons were hammering the leftmost tower, slowly eating away at its wall before the giant gun at its top was toppled. The last remaining gun emplacement continued to fire, albeit more slowly than its counterparts. Three Macrocannon-shells however hit the landing fields, destroying two light landers and annihilating an entire Platoon of the 477th just as it was disembarking. Colonel Sholana of the 42nd Paragonian Armoured called in a Lance-strike to silence the last tower, but the shot went wide, leaving the Baneblades to finish the job. A lucky shot killed the Macrocannon's crew, finally freeing the Seventh Paragonian Heavy Tank Company from securing the landing fields. Now the attack on Matua Superior could begin in earnest. As the other regiments of Battlegroup Genthus deployed in their own landing zone, the Seventh Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Company received new orders: to link up with the Stormlords of the Eight Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Company and take out a big link in the fortifications the city's approaches: a fort in the shape of a six point-pointed star, four of the branches featuring turret-mounted artillery-pieces now firing at the regiments of the Second Gulem Recovery Force. After a quick exchange on the Vox, the Companies two commanding officers agreed to deviate from the original plan and speed up the attack, the Eight following in the Seventh's wake as to better shield their complement of infantry they were carrying and without whom they would be unable to secure their objective. Lux Imperator was tasked with targeting the forts' main weapons and silenced them all but one before knowing another malfunction, the tank's Machine Spirit obviously still not back to its normal self after having been captured by the Orks on Kalidar. With their most potent gun out of order, the Hellhammer and Baneblades would need to do, but the fort was well conceived and at long range even the Mega Battle Cannon shells of Cortein's Honour and'' Artemen Ultrus'' simply ricocheted off the fort's thick armour. The only option left was to close with the target so that the Baneblades' and Hellhammer's Demolisher Cannons could open a breach and get the Stormlords to work. This however meant daring the fort's complement of heavy weapons -- mostly Lascannons and Missile Launchers -- that , if properly handled, could well harm the super heavy tanks. Fortunately for the tankers, the Geratomran Planetary Defence Militia seemed not very experienced and failed to do any real damage. The Seventh's three advancing tanks soon opened up whit their own tertiary weaponry, Twin-linked sponsoon-mounted Heavy Bolters targeting the fort's firing slit and forcing its occupants to seek shelter. Combining their fire for more effect, the Baneblades and the lone Hellhamer fired all of their primary and secondary weaponry at once, finally opening a breach in the fort's armoured sides. As if on cue, Honoured Lieutenant Hurnigen confirmed Lux Imperator ready to fire and a second breach was opened. The Stormlords then surged forward, heading straight for the breaches. Using their tanks armoured weight as primitive battering rams, Honoured Lieutenant Lo Parrigar's "Lucky Eights" broke through the weakened portions of walls, clearing the space behind with the thunderous roar and hundred thousands of shells of their Vulcan Mega Bolters. As soon as the weapons cycled down, the embarked troops dumped out of the Stormlords' troop compartments and began clearing the fort. Soon the Company Standard of the 477th Paragonian Foot 8th Company was flying over the fort, indicating its capture. The capture of the fort heralded the end of the fight. With their main-fortification in enemy hands, the loss of the spaceport and the Atraxians pressing in from the north, the defenders of Matua Superior soon lost heart. Other regiments pressed deeper into the city and by the seventh hour of the landing, Matua Superior's lord-civil sued for peace and offered an unconditional surrender of all remaining troops. The reinstatement of Imperial Justice Even before the capitulation had become effective, Imperial Justice was dealt out to those that had turned away from the Divine Emperor's Light. For those that had taken up arms against the soldiers of the Imperium, this usually meant a swift end by firing squad. Matua Superior's ruler would ultimately suffer a similar fate but not before the Imperium had established its might. On the day following Matua Superior's surrender, more than five thousand men of the Astra Militarum participated in a grand parade across the city. Representatives of all the regiments fighting on Geratomro were convened to march down the ceremonial avenues, the parade being opened up by the metal beasts of two Super Heavy Tank Companies: the Paragonian 7th and the Atraxian 18th. Servo-skulls flew over the parade relaying words of encouragement to the conquered populace which dutifully cheered the marching troops on. From the city's streets, the population could also observe the descent of the great coffin-ship carrying the mighty battle-engines of the Legio Crucis, the Titans' arrival precisely scheduled to coincide with the event: another show of force to cull Geratomro's remaining hostile cities. At the end of the parade, the troops filled into the great square beneath the Basilica of the Emperor's Light, Matua Superior's greatest religious edifice and waited for the conclusion of the procession. A great stage had been erected in the night before, a thing of brutish architecture with the notable exception of its lectern which was shaped to the like of an Aquila, its wings spreading to either sides. Two crude cages were hanging from two gibbets, their doors open and waiting for their occupants. At a prearranged signal, the Servo-skulls scattered all over the city, ready to relay what would happen in the square all over the city. The door of the great cathedral opened and a great Imperial delegation filed out of the Basilica, General-Captain Iskhandrian at their head. Matua Superior's twin-rulers, the Lord Civil and the city's military commander, Colonel Maden, and other Geratomran dignitaries captured by the Imperial troops were ushered forward and brought unto the stage under heavy guard of the Tempestus Scions of the Atraxian Guard Paramount. After a sermon of the army's most senior Priest, Colonel Maden was brought forth and read a statement from the lectern in which he repented from his sins, denouncing himself and his men as fools and cowards for having been lead astray by the false promises of a corrupt planetary ruler. Yet he rejoiced for by his actions he hoped to earn the Benevolent Emperor's Forgiveness. Having finished his speech, both the Lord Civil and the Colonel were led to the cages and firmly locked into them. This caused some hilarity amongst the Ogryns of the 36th Ogryn Auxilia for the bulk of the fat Lord Civil's body's was too great to easily fit in the cage and needed to be shuffled by two Atraxian troopers to make him enter. Once his cage was locked as well, the Atraxian Guard Paramount began assembling wood beneath the cages before two grim-looking troopers trust burning torches into the piles. The screams of Matua Superior's burning leader were dutifully transmitted across the entire city while the gathered troops watched on in silence. What may be seen as gratuitous cruelty was in truth a deliberate act: by showing the ruthlessness of Imperial justice and offering to show some leniency towards its execution, General Iskhandrian hoped to bring other local leaders to lay down their weapons before the arrival of the Imperial troops. Within two days of the capture of Matua Superior and the fate of its rulers becoming public knowledge, five major settlements had surrendered. Advance on Magor's Seat While all across Geratomro the defenders broke or surrendered there was one notable exception : the Yellow Guard, Missrine Huratal's elite troops, fanatically loyal to the House of Magor which they had protected for thousands of years. While not numerous enough to hold an entire frontline, the Yellow Guard had been tasked with the defence of Geratomro's capital, Magor's Seat and were wise enough not to trust only in static defenses. The Yellow Guard had taken up defensive positions across the major arteries linking Matua Superior to Magor's Seat, effectively locking down the approaches to the army's ultimate objective with a minimum of men. In order to further delay the advancing Imperial forces, the Yellow Guard conducted several cleverly devised ambushes and delaying actions that considerably slowed the Imperial advance. Frustrated by these delays, Captain-General Iskhandrian ordered his heaviest elements to the front, but even against the Super Heavy Tank Companies, the Yellow Guard was able to hold its on. The Seventh Paragonian Super Heavy Company for instance was targeted by a suicide attack, the Yellow Guard using Augur-detectable landmines to block the road, forcing the mighty engines of war to cross across fields where they risked becoming bogged down by the mud. This fate indeed awaited the Hellhammer, Ostrakhan's Rebirth and effectively disrupted the 7th's formation. The Yellow Guard then counterattacked with merely seven Leman Russes which nevertheless were able to immobilize the Baneblade Artemen Ultrus by targeting its tracks. Worse yet, the Shadowsword Lux Imperator knew an other catastrophic system failure which cost its live to the Shadowsword's gunner and injured several other crew member. For the relatively modest price of a few scores of infantrymen and seven regular tanks, the enemy had reduced the fighting strength of the Seventh Paragonian Super Heavy Company to a mere 25%. Only a few minutes after the suicide attack an urgent message, carried by runner reached the Seventh Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Company: elements of the 477th Paragonian Foot were requesting their assistance to take a strategically vital objective. To Take Hill Seven-Beta Quickly denominated Hill Seven-Beta, the target was a well-prepared enemy strongpoint combining natural terrain and man-made obstacles to transform the modest outcrop of rocks into a small fortress. The hill was a rocky outcrop, quite modest in size but which dominated the predominately flat landscape stretching between Matua Superior and the great Drava Highway leading to the planetary capital of Magor's Seat. The source of the Drava river was located on Hill Seven Beta, a small stream that grew into a large river several miles down. The hill runs from the North-East to the South-West, parallel to the main road leading out of the conquered city of Matua Superior with the highway. It was a perfect location for artillery and precisely the location where the Yellow Guard had established a hardened artillery redoubt, building up on the hill's natural defenses with tank traps, reinforced trenches and pill-boxes. Two previous attacks by the 477th had already been repelled with severe losses. During the first assault, the 16th Company presently on the frontline had lost all its Chimeras to well-trained heavy weapon teams, mostly man-protable Autocannons and Missile Launchers and a few Lascannons. The second assault had benefitted from the support of five Leman Russ Battle Tanks but the armoured support had drawn out the defenders main asset: a redoubtable and extremely rare Destroyer Tank Hunter. With the Destroyer's Heavy Laser Destroyer making short work of the Leman Russes, the second assault had failed as well. In the meantime, the Yellow Guard's artillery continuously hammered the main road, which was by now clogged by traffic. Between those companies and regiments moving towards Magor's Seat and those wounded returning to the field hospitals in Matua Superior, the road was crowded with Imperial troops. The continuous downpour had turned the unpaved road into a quagmire, one several wheeled vehicles were unable to cross, causing ever-growing traffic-jams. In these conditions, it was no wonder that every single artillery shell would wreck havoc, hence the need to silence theses guns as quickly as possible. Being the only fighting-worthy vehicle in the entire Seventh Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Company, the Baneblade Cortein's Honour was sent forwards to help 16th Company with the capture of their objective. The Baneblade advanced slowly, the traffic on the road forcing it to move parallel to it, across fields and orchards where the Baneblade's lumbering speed was even further reduced. Seven hours past before Cortein's Honour even got to the area of engagement. Seven hours during which countless lives were lost. Coup d’État A New Enemy Race To Victory Aftermath Imperial Order of Battle The reclamation of Geratomro was only rendered possible through the combined efforts of no less then three previously independent Astra Militarum battlegroups and their respective reinforcements. Below is the Imperial order of battle for the Geratomran Reconquest with its nominal fighting strength at the beginning of the campaign in 398.M41. Battlegroup Geratomro Battlegroup Geratomro was formed to accompany Senior Assessor Borowisk to Geratomro. Intended more as a show of force to impress Planetary Governatrice Missrine Huratal I, the initial reclamation force was ill-prepared for the sudden violent actions undertaken by the Renegade Geratomran Planetary Defence Forces and suffered heavily while the Tithe Fleet was still in orbit. The battlegroup's core was comprised of experienced but severely depleted regiments of Cadian Shock Troops. Designated Commanding Officer : General Jonatan Hern Astra Militarum Regiments *'415th Cadian Infantry Regiment' (strength at 18%) *'754th Cadian Armoured Regiment' (strength at 28%) *'89th Cadian Artillery Regiment' (strengthat 76%) *'Fourth Jupian Ironlords' (strength at 17%) - The Ironlords are officially designated infantry regiments, however the low technological base of their homeworld means that the Ironlords do not meet the Departmento Munitorum's requirements for frontline service and need to be reequipped with more advanced weapons befitting the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. While petitioned to do so, the Departmento Munitorum had yet to reequip the regiment at the beginning of the Geratomran Reconquest. *'First Drani New-Pledged '(Infantry) (strength at 56%) *'Second Drani New-Pledged' (Rough Riders) (strength at 72%) *'36th Ogryn Auxilia' (strength at 63%) Battlegroup Kalidar Battlegroup Kalidar doubtlessly fielded the most experienced troops of the entire campaign, as some of its regiments were veterans of the Dentares Suppression. By the time of the Geratomran Reconquest, the battlegroup had successfully concluded the Kalidar War and the follow-up actions on the sub-sector capital world of Agritha. Only the second wave of reinforcements raised from Bosovar was still unblooded. While mostly comprised of Paragonian Regiments, command was given to an Atraxian general. Designated Commanding Officer : Captain-General Iskhandrian, advised by Grand Captain Olgau (Cc/ref Atraxian Command Protocols, Sibellius' Guide to Imperial Guard Regiments of the Segmentum Tempestus) Astra Militarum Regiments *'121st Atraxian Mechanised Infantry' (heavy infantry) (strength at 37%) *'122nd Atraxian Artillery' (strength at 90%) *'18th Atraxian Super Heavy Tank Company' (generalised) (full strength) *'Atraxian Guard Paramount '(Tempestus Scions) *'31st Bosovar Levy' (strength at 99%) - The four regiments of Bosovar Levies were raised in 396.M41 on the Feral World of Artemis V. *'32nd Bosovar Levy' (strength at 99%) *'33rd Bosovar Levy' (strength at 100%) *'34rd Bosovar Levy' (strength at 100%) *'23rd Paragonian Foot' (strength at 50%) *'62nd/84th Mechanised Infantry' (strength at 83%) - The 62nd/84th Mechanised Infantry Regiment was created by the fusion of the severely depleted 62nd Mechanised Infantry Regiment, a veteran of the Dentares Suppression and the 84th Paragonian Foot Regiment in the wake of the Kalidar War. The Paragonians, with their natural affinity for mechanised warfare, adapted quickly and performed well despite serving under mostly foreign officers. *'63rd Paragonian Mechanised' (strength at 26%) *'42nd Paragonian Armoured' (strength at 54%) - The 42nd Paragonian Armoured Regiment was officially disbanded at the end of the Kalidar War and its numbers reassigned for a future founding of a new regiment. The remains of the old 42nd remained with the battlegroup. *'322nd Paragonian Armoured Veterans' (strength at 29%) *'Seventh Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Company' (multirole) (strength at 100%) *'12th Savlar Light Infantry' (strength at 72%) *'13th Savlar Light Infantry' (strength at 57%) Adeptus Astartes Having also fought on Kalidar, the battlegroup's association with the Space Marines of the Black Templars Chapter continued throughout the Geratomran Reconquest. Led by the visions of their newly appointed Emperor's Champion, the members of the Black Templars' Michaelus Crusade would distinguish themselves on Geratomro by slaying Lord Damien Bastoon of the Emperor's Children and the Herald of Slaanesh and closing the Warp Rift that threatened to unleash a full-fledged daemonic incursion across the sector. Designated Commanding Officer: Marshall Michaelus *'90 Battle-Brothers and associated support elements' Adeptus Mechanicus Having fought alongside Battlegroup Kalidar on Agritha, Battlegroup Geratomro would benefit from the presence of the remainder of one maniple of Battle Titans of the Collegia Titanica, their unparalleled capacity for destruction enough to cow the rebellious Geratomrans into submission. While already depleted, the presence of these Titans proved instrumental in vanquishing the enemy's own Titan support. Designated Commanding Officer: Princeps Yolandesh of the Legio Crucis *''Ultimate Sanction'' (''Reaver''-class Titan) *''War's Gift'' (''Warhound''-class Titan) Battlegroup Genthus Battlegroup Genthus was mainly comprised of the Paragonian Regiments of the 2nd Gulem Recovery Force which since its inception in 395.M41 had exclusively fought human insurrectionists and secessionists. Designated Commanding Officer : General Maden Heldor Lo Basteen Astra Militarum Regiments *'477th Paragonian Foot '- The 477th Paragonian Foot was a double-size regiment. *'Paragonian Black Suns' (Tempestus Scions) *'109th Paragonian Artillery' *'84th Pargonian Armoured Regiment' *'8th Paragonian Super Heavy Tank Company' (assault) (at 100% strength) Sources *''Shadowsword'' (Novel) by Guy Haley Category:G Category:Campaigns Category:History Category:Imperial History Category:Imperial Campaigns Category:Chaos Campaigns